1989-02-04 Melody Maker
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Big Timers
By C.M., Melody Maker, February 4 1989
Archived from: https://www.flickr.com/photos/tabloidfootprints/33178088734/in/album-72157685943168955
It starts out ordinarily enough. Two guys go to school in Boston together. They just so happen to end up living in the same apartment building in Brooklyn. They form a two-man band called THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS, and annnoy their friends by slapping a new song on the answering machine every day. Oh, and they're both called John.
John Linnell (total absence of haircut, red Converse All Stars) and John Flansburgh (Lemmy "tattoo", Clark Kent specs) have now gotten themselves quite a big West Coast following, and the answering machine ploy ("just a way for me to make my friends listen to my stuff") has become a public "dial-a-song" line. At least it's not the equivalent of an 0898 number, 25p a minute off peak. "Naah. It's still just an answering machine."
Between the two of them, they've written several hundred songs. Why this creative frenzy?
John: "It's just the kinda guys we are. We put all our best songs on our records and U2 are still more popular."
John: "That's probably because some people misunderstand us as some kind of musical parody, just cos of our versatile song styles and humorous lyrics."
John: "At the same time, it's ridiculous for us to sit here and say, 'No, no, it's not funny."
John: "I think it's just our cross to bear. Though we should consider the function of laughing in the evolutionary process of homo-sapiens."
John doesn't fool me with his psycho-historical contextualising. He once told a rival journalist that the accordion was a very existential instrument, and the poor hack puzzled over that for a year until he met him again and asked, "What did you mean by that?"
Are you trying very hard to be quirky, kids?
John: "Not really, but it would be nice to be regarded as truly eccentric. Instead we get people saying, 'You wear big hats in your video.' And you feel like answering, 'That's cause I'm f***ed up, OKAY?"
John: "But it's not music by committee; we're just doing what makes us happy."
John: "It sounds kinda selfish to say that, but I guess we are trying to make ourselves happy."
It could all be so nice and jolly if they weren't so uptight, sitting there clenching their coffee mugs. John is all insulted because I laughed when he started talking about algorithms. Other John is trying to explain how their wacky and highly enjoyable videos are subjected to a seemingly random set of aesthetic rules, "It's like, I'll wear the fish mask, but I refuse to twirl it around."
"We drink too much coffee," offers John. "So we get very worked up about details." But the big picture is bright. They've been asked to star in a remake of the 1938 hit, "Burn "Em Up O'Connor" with John as O' Connor, the speedway ace, and John as his worried coach, MacNamara. It'll be huge. CM